A small Texas town in Gillespie County is just one of countless areas in the U.S. where hand-counted ballots are making an appearance. The Gillespie County Republicans in Fredericksburg, made news when deciding to hand count ballots for the March 2024 primary election.
On Monday, another state is considering the move as the Georgia State Election Board will meet and vote on new election rules previously endorsed by the board.
The State Election Board’s conservative majority became open to changes in the election administration rules, which dates back to the 2020 election result in Georgia.
Former President Donald Trump praised board members Dr. Janice Johnston, Janelle King, and Rick Jeffares for heading up the ballot rule endorsements. Trump referred to them as “pit bulls fighting for honesty, transparency and victory.”
“Counting the paper ballot is the control. It is simply assuring the reconciliation of the electronic record to the actual ballots, and the ballot is our vote,” said Election Board member Dr. Janice Johnston on MSN.
The controversial new rules are supported by the three-member majority but have met resistance from other state leaders.
Opposition Against Old School Method
Other state officials do not view the new changes as beneficial to the election process. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger called that effort “misguided,” saying it would delay the reporting of election results and introduce risks to chain of custody procedures.
“Activists seeking to impose last-minute changes in election procedures outside of the legislative process undermine voter confidence and burden election workers,” Raffensperger said in a news release.
The State Election Board received slew of rule proposals, some of which came from activists aligned with former President Trump. who maintains that widespread voter fraud cost him victory in Georgia’s 2020 presidential election.
The hand-counting of ballots is a hotly debated topic with some experts claiming that the old-school method is error-prone, expensive, and laborious. “Hand-counting is a recipe for disaster,” said Bob Stein, a political science professor at Rice University and election administration expert.
For years, the people in the famous tourist city of Fredericksburg in Central Texas have hand-counted ballots despite controversy. It wasn’t until the county’s Republicans decided to hand-count ballots for the March primaries that the town of Gillespie gained the public spotlight.
Collin County Eyes Hand-counted Ballots
Fredericksburg and the state of Georgia are not the only ones eyeing a hand-counted ballot system. Collin County is considering a hand-marked paper ballot system in a future election, but not this November.
The county currently uses voting machines to mark and count ballots. At a recent commissioners court meeting, Collin County Judge Chris Hill proposed that Collin County switch its voting method to hand-marked paper ballots that are machine counted starting in the upcoming election.
“It’s our turn for us to take our step in continuing to pursue election integrity here at home,” Hill said in a KERA News interview.
Hill’s proposal will not go into effect during the November elections since county commissioners failed to pass his motion during the meeting. Instead, the commissioners elected for county staff to look into using paper ballots in the future, and allow voters to decide by a potential bond election on the issue.
